Pedregales, Mexico Outreach, May 11, 2013

What an incredible day of Ministry

125 decisions 4 Christ + 165 Southern Californians + 110 Ministry partners from Tijuana churches + 2 stages + 2,163 hotdogs + 80 smashed concrete blocks + 4 school buses + 9 cars + 550 burritos + 7 large army tents + 3 hrs in line to cross the border = ONE incredible day in Mexico!

On Saturday May 11th, about 165 Southern California residents met in different parking lots across San Diego County and Orange County.  We started our day carpooling to the San Diego/Tijuana border where we waited until all the people from the US side arrived.  We then crossed the border together on foot and loaded onto four school buses that were waiting for us on the Tijuana side of the border in Mexico. With water bottles in hands and sunscreen on our faces we all felt prepared, but nothing could've prepared us for the work God was about to do through each of us. 

 The buses took us to a dusty dirt road in the middle of Pedregales, Mexico where we all unloaded and met for a ministry partners meeting and prayer. Joining us in that meeting were about 110 enthusiastic Mexican citizens from churches throughout Tijuana, who were there for the same reason as us, to serve the people of Pedregales and teach them about Christ's love.

We then broke into our teams and began to set up for the day; each person unpacking donated supplies in their various tents and greeting the people from the community who had already begun lining up. There were 10 teams;  a hair cutting team, a medical team, children's ministry team, food prep/service team, family pictures team, soccer/sports ministry team, security team, programming/logistics team, counseling/prayer/evangelist team, and a facilities/electric team.  Each of the teams had participants from the US and from Mexico; all day long the ministry site echoed with laughter, music, rapid Spanish and happy English. 

The focus of our day was to share Christ and this happened in a powerful way from the main stage area (our stage was really a flatbed truck): the band “Two or More” and “The Message” both blessed us with fantastic music in Spanish and there were many moving testimonies shared.  Both the bands and the Dunamis Team “The Mighty Men of Power” riled up the crowd with a very dynamic demonstration of breaking, bending and crushing things!  It was a very busy and exciting day!

  

Despite the heat, language barriers, port-a-potties, and massive crowds, the teams served with joyful and willing hearts.  Many people worked without breaks just to make sure that our guests from Pedregales received the care they came for.  God definitely showed up!  About 1,000 people were fed, loved, prayed for, and served.  However, the most exciting aspect of the day was the number of people who made decisions to give their lives to Christ!  Nearly 50 adults made life changing decisions and over 75 children accepted Christ!  God filled in the spaces and used us to accomplish way more than we could’ve without Him!  Through everyone’s willingness to serve, whether that meant dressing up as a clown for the children’s ministry, cutting onions till your eyes watered, giving squirming little ones buzz cuts, or buying snow cones for the overheated boys rough housing on the soccer field, the community experienced God’s unmistakable love.   Not only were the lives of the ministry partners blessed, but Pedregales was positively impacted for God’s Kingdom in innumerable ways.

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